


Shop's Closed

by ithilien22



Category: Shadowhunters (TV)
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-31
Updated: 2017-05-31
Packaged: 2018-11-07 03:25:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,248
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11050317
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ithilien22/pseuds/ithilien22
Summary: Magnus and Alec take a night off. Somehow, the world keeps spinning.





	Shop's Closed

**Author's Note:**

> Written for [this wonderful prompt](https://ithilien-writes.tumblr.com/post/161241571126/sads-magnus-comes-to-visit-cat-to-check-on-dot). <3

When Alec arrives at the loft, the door swings open for him without revealing anyone behind it. It’s not unusual – Magnus often sets his magic to tend to visitors when he’s otherwise occupied – but Alec still steps more tentatively into the apartment than he normally might. 

He knows something is wrong; he could hear it in the false chipperness of Magnus's voice when he called.

"Magnus?" He calls out.

He doesn't receive a response, but the worry he feels only lasts as long as it takes him to make it to the living room. Magnus is sitting on the couch, nursing a glass of some kind of alcohol – whiskey, maybe? – seemingly lost in thought.

"Magnus?" Alec says again, softer this time, and Magnus looks up at him momentarily surprised before he seems to collect himself.

“Alexander,” he returns falsely bright, standing immediately to greet Alec with a quick kiss before he’s spinning away again towards the bar cart. “Can I get you a drink, darling? Cat brought me some wine from France that I think you may actually like.”

“Yeah, sounds good,” Alec says, mostly because he doesn’t know what else to say. He wonders if Magnus realizes how quickly he’s talking, or how much the simple act of pouring a glass of wine has him fluttering back and forth in circles across the length or the room at least three times now, if Alec is counting correctly.

When Magnus finally rejoins him and reaches out to hand him the glass, Alec catches his wrist instead.

“Hey,” he says softly, forcing Magnus to stop moving for a moment. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing’s wrong,” Magnus tells him, though Alec notices the false cheeriness is gone from his voice. Alec rubs his thumb against Magnus’s wrist.

“Your hand is shaking,” he points out. Magnus looks down at it and frowns. It steadies.

“I- It’s been a bit of a day,” Magnus admits, still looking down at Alec’s hand on his wrist.

“Want to talk about it?” Alec asks.

Magnus looks back up at him and sighs.

“I’m sorry,” he says. “I knew I wasn’t going to be good company tonight, but I-”

He stops mid-sentence on another tired exhale and pulls away from Alec, circling back to the couch again. He sets both of their drinks down on the table in front of him as he sits, before glancing back up.

“I just didn’t want to be alone,” he admits sheepishly.

Alec’s heart constricts.

“You don’t have to entertain me, Magnus,” he says, joining him on the couch. “And you don’t have to talk about what’s bothering you. I mean, not if- not if you don’t want to. But don’t be sorry for calling.”

He drapes his arm around the back of the couch and smiles when Magnus takes the invitation for what it is and curls into his chest.

“This is always where I want to be,” Alec tells him. It’s a pretty sappy thing to say out loud, but he feels like Magnus needs to hear it right now.

“I love you,” Magnus says in response, and something in Alec’s stomach flutters pleasantly. Just like it does every time he hears Magnus say those words.

“I love you too,” he replies easily.

They just sit like that for awhile, curled up together on the couch. Alec plays with the collar of Magnus’s shirt and busies himself with mapping the new lines of color in his hair. Blue today.

He’s not sure how long it’s been, but Alec suddenly realizes how close he is to almost nodding off when Magnus’s voice breaks the steady silence.

“I went to Cat’s earlier,” he says, “to check on Dot and Madzie.”

He shifts a bit, settling back into Alec’s chest.

“They’re both blossoming under Cat’s care, of course,” he continues. “Madzie especially. She was like a whole new girl. She ran up to give me a hug when I arrived.”

Alec smiles at the thought of the little girl who’d saved his life finally being somewhere safe enough to come out of her shell.

“That’s great,” he says. 

The silence stretches out again and Alec thinks about asking after Madzie's magic lessons, but before he can Magnus is speaking again.

“Dot hadn’t heard about Ragnor,” he says lowly, and all at once Alec understands. He tugs Magnus a little closer.

“I’m sorry,” he says.

“I don’t know why it didn’t occur to me. But then, it hadn’t occurred to Cat either, so,” he trails off, hand tracing one of the runes on Alec’s forearm. “When she asked after him we both just blanched. It was like it happened all over again.”

Alec wishes he knew what to say. Ragnor’s death happened early in their relationship – before it started, really – but it had been clear to Alec even then how much his friendship had meant to Magnus. There were still pieces of him all over the loft, both in the physical things he’d held and loved and gifted, and in all of the memories connected to them. When Alec tries to relate it to his own relationships, he thinks losing Ragnor for Magnus must have been like losing Jace would be for Alec. He can’t imagine.

“I know it’s been months,” Magnus says, and Alec feels himself shaking his head at the underlying derision in Magnus’s words.

“I don’t think there’s a deadline for grief,” Alec says and Magnus makes a noise like a choked off sob.

“I just miss him,” Magnus says. There are definitely tears in his voice now and Alec shifts them both slightly in order to pull him into a proper hug. 

He’s never been very good with people crying, but Alec finds that he’s not actually uncomfortable this time. He’s just sad for Magnus, and he wishes he knew what he could do.

They’re both startled by a loud knock on the door. Magnus pulls back from Alec and moves to stand but Alec stops him.

“I’ll take care of it,” he says.

For a moment, it seems like Magnus might protest, but then he just sinks back into the couch, clearly still trying to fight back tears. Alec squeezes his shoulder before standing and making his way to the door.

Whoever is on the other side is still knocking incessantly when he gets there. _We hear you_ , he thinks irritably, opening the door with a little more force than strictly necessary. On the other side, Jace nearly falls into him, hand still outstretched. Clary is also there, standing just behind him.

“We need Magnus’s help,” Jace says without preamble, moving as if to brush past Alec into the apartment. But Alec blocks his path, using his surprise to maneuver him back out into the hallway. He shuts the door behind them.

“Now’s not a good time,” he tells them.

“Alec, this is serious!” Clary says. She has the nerve to look offended. Jace, on the other hand, just rolls his eyes.

“Yeah, sorry we ruined date night, or whatever,” he says, “but Clary’s right. This couldn’t wait.”

“And you need Magnus because he has what?” Alec presses. “A piece of information no one else has? Some one of a kind artifact in his possession that can’t be found anywhere else?”

“We need a warlock to-” Clary starts to answer, but Alec cuts her off.

“That’s what I thought,” he says, crossing his arms. “You know, New York City actually has more than one capable warlock.”

Jace rolls his eyes. Again.

“Finding another warlock will take time we don’t have,” he argues.

“Bullshit,” Alec returns immediately. “The Clave has a file on hundreds of warlocks you could summon by fire message and have at the institute in minutes.”

“You’re really not going to let us in, are you?” Clary asks, incredulous.

“Answer me truthfully,” he says. “Is Magnus the only person who can help you?”

“Well, no,” Clary answers grudgingly, “but he-”

“Then sorry, shop’s closed tonight,” Alec says, feeling less guilty and more bitter than he expects to. How often do people show up at Magnus’s door expecting him to fix all of their problems? How often have any of them done anything to help Magnus in return?

“Okay, okay,” Jace says, holding up his hands in a gesture of surrender. He turns to Clary. “He’s right about the warlock files at the institute, we’ll be able to find someone in there.”

He glances back at Alec. “It’ll just cost a fortune, probably.”

Alec knows Jace doesn’t mean anything by it, not really, but Alec has to fight the urge to smack him. 

“If you need me, I’ll have my phone on,” he says as he opens the door to return to the loft, “but if you call me, someone had better be literally dying.”

The sound of the door slamming behind him is oddly satisfying.

When he returns to the couch, Magnus looks completely put together again, makeup flawless and eyes dry. Alec feels an unexpected twinge of regret at the sight, but he doesn’t know why. 

Magnus smiles at him a bit ruefully.

“You didn’t have to send them away,” he says. “I could’ve helped.”

“You shouldn’t have to,” Alec replies, not bothering to ask how he heard their conversation. 

Magnus frowns. He opens his mouth to argue but Alec cuts off his reply.

“They’ll be fine, Magnus. They wouldn’t have left otherwise.”

He leans back into the couch, resuming their previous position.

“Besides, it’ll be good for them. Let Clary and Jace grossly overpay another warlock to do half as good work, then maybe they’ll stop taking you for granted.”

Magnus laughs, shaking them both.

“That sounds like something Ragnor would’ve said,” he says fondly.

“Smart man,” Alec replies after a beat. Magnus sighs, but it’s a lighter sound now.

“He gave great advice,” he tells Alec. “I thought of him, you know, the day of your wedding. I imagined what he would tell me to do.”

Alec swallows thickly.

“And what would he have told you?”

“That I had to try,” Magnus says, craning his neck slightly to look up at Alec.

“I’m glad you did,” Alec murmurs in response, leaning down to steal a soft kiss. 

After that, the stories seem to flow out of Magnus easily – most about Ragnor, but some about Magnus’s other friends, their adventures together. Alec finds himself captivated from the first word, and it takes them both by surprise when the new morning light starts to spill in from the balcony. Alec realizes he’s heard Magnus laugh more in one night than he ever has before. Even the somber moments, the sadder stories, seem lighter after they’ve been shared.

Eventually, they both start to nod off, but Alec manages to shake himself awake, knowing he needs to get back to the institute. Gently, he lifts a sleeping Magnus off of the couch and carries him back to his bedroom. He scribbles a note to leave on the bedside table and then kisses Magnus’s forehead in parting. Magnus sighs in his sleep, leaning towards Alec’s touch. He smiles at the sight.

When he returns to the institute, however, his mood drops significantly when he spots Jace and Clary sparing in the training room. Jace pretends to miss an easy hook so that Clary can pin him and he smirks up at her when she does, some sort of witty innuendo clearly at the tip of his tongue.

“Good to see you’re both alive,” Alec calls out sarcastically to them, pausing in the doorway.

Clary blushes, immediately rolling off Jace, but Jace takes his time to pull himself up, visibly annoyed.

“It all worked out,” he allows eventually. “Was the sex worth it?”

“Jace!” Clary says, overly loud in her shock.

“Real mature, Jace,” Alec bites back, taking a step forward as Jace does the same. Clary steps in between them.

“Come on, guys,” she tries. 

“Not that it’s any of your business,” Alec says, still leaning around her towards Jace. “But Magnus spent the afternoon having to relive his best friend’s death for Dot because she was in captivity at the time. Except, I guess you would know that already, since you were there with him when Ragnor died. I’m sure you must’ve asked him about it after? To see how he was doing, right?”

Alec runs out of steam towards the end of his rant, hearing his own words and wondering with a slightly sinking feeling how much of this speech he should be giving to the mirror. Jace looks like he’s been punched in the gut. 

“I didn’t kn- There was a lot going on at the time,” Jace manages, after a moment. “Alec-”

“I’m not mad at you,” Alec says, because he isn’t, not really. “I just- Magnus isn’t your own personal magic solution to every problem, okay? He’s a person.”

Clary looks like she might be blinking back tears. Jace nods.

“You’re right,” Jace says, reaching out a hand to Alec and smiling softly when he takes it. “Magnus has done a lot for all of us. I owe him an apology.”

Alec shakes him off, grinning tiredly. He can already tell it’s going to be a long day going on no sleep.

“Maybe next time just… call first?” he suggests and Jace laughs.

“I think we can manage that,” Clary answers for him, and Alec’s too tired to stop himself rolling his eyes as he heads back out towards the command floor.

_Promises, promises._

**Author's Note:**

> please come bug/prompt/harass me on [tumblr](https://ithilien-writes.tumblr.com/)


End file.
